Rep. John Nygren (R-Marinette) has proposed bills to slow the tide of heroin-related deaths by getting quicker treatment to those who overdose, and by making drugs that can lead to heroin addiction harder to get.

State Rep. John Nygren Authors 4 Bills To Curb Heroin Overdoses

A handful of bills aimed at curbing heroin overdoses in Wisconsin are getting high marks from people on the front lines of the fight against the deadly drug.

Four bills, introduced by Rep. John Nygren (R-Marinette), hope to slow the tide of heroin-related deaths by getting quicker treatment to those who overdose and by making drugs that can lead to heroin addiction harder to get.

Karen Hale is a mother from Hudson who lost her daughter to heroin last spring. She says the most exciting of the four bills introduced by Nygren would equip ambulance crews across the state with a drug called Naloxone that effectively halts heroin’s effects on the brain.

“It sends a strong message that an addicts life is worth saving,” says Hale. “Seconds count on an overdose, and even just transporting an overdose victim from the scene to a hospital could be a matter of that life or death.”

But ambulance crews can only save overdose victims they know about. Too often fellow heroin users wait to call for help because they’re afraid of being arrested.

Amber Hahn, assistant district attorney for St. Croix County, says a second bill by Nygren, which would provide immunity in those cases, could reduce that stigma: “If we can somehow get across to the community of addicts that we need them to talk to us, we need them to call for help right away and that bad things aren’t going to happen to them from doing that … then I think overall we’re going to save lives and improve investigations.”

According to the most recent data from the Department of Health Services, 134 people died from heroin in 2011.

Two other bills have been introduced that would make it harder to get prescription painkillers illegally.

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